Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Does It Take A Steve Jobs To Lift a Company Or Change the Course Of An Industry?

Earlier, I had an e-mail conversation with Dave the Mobile Sage regarding today's Amazon entry into the tablet market with the Kindle Fire. He mentioned that Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, is trying to be the next Steve Jobs.

I don't really see it but I do have to say that Amazon with its growing cloud empire is something that they got into before most others. And most others, including Apple, are still trying to figure that part out.

So, I ask this. Does it really take someone like Steve Jobs to revolutionize an industry or change how we see or do things? The one thing that sticks out for me is that Steve Jobs has failed before and learn from it. Jeff Bezos started Amazon as a bookstore and grew from that.

Many captains of industries have similar beginnings like Bezos but hardly any have had the experience that Steve Jobs did, revolutionizing an industry twice.

And here's an interesting post I read. Jerry Yang could be trying to reassert his control over Yahoo. Could Yang, after starting up Yahoo successfully but failed as its CEO now learn enough to give the portal giant a second chance? Does Yang have what it takes to make Yahoo relevant again?

Even if Bezos and Yang aren't Steve Jobs' in the making, does it matter?